Listen: A special Toronto podcast with Christopher Mintz-Plasse and the team behind ‘Hellbenders’

Toronto may be in the rear view at this point, but this podcast I put together from interviews I conducted at the festival is, in my opinion, a great pleasure. I’m always fairly upfront about how much I enjoy the overall atmosphere of the Midnight Madness screenings at the Ryerson. I’m a firm believer that if you’re going to write about the festival, you need to include those films in that time slot in the public venue. That’s the point.

When I saw that Chris Mintz-Plasse was working in Toronto, he seemed eager to try out something at the festival during his shooting schedule for “Kick-Ass 2.” When I first got to town, I posted that story about the Twitter feed that director Jeff Wadlow was using to reveal images from behind the scenes. He’s continued to post an image a day. It’s exactly the right amount of tease, and so far, he hasn’t even remotely hinted at a spoiler. He’s been fairly jovial when discussing paparazzi photo leaks from the set. It’s been fun to observe. Chris seemed fairly excited about the film, about the just-revealed casting of Jim Carrey in a key role, and about the evolution of his character from frustrated son to Red Mist to broken-hearted son to super villain. The end of the first film made the biggest promise in regards to where he might be headed, and much of the large supporting cast is used to fill out his own personal team of super villains with a name so filthy, I’m fairly sure I’m not even allowed to print it with a**erisks taken out.

Between the various TV interviews I was doing, many of which you’ll see in the weeks ahead as the films start to arrive in theaters, I was also trying to find time to add in some interviews that were audio only. The biggest of those will be published here as a special feature-length piece very soon, once “Cloud Atlas” is a little closer to release, but the rest of them were recorded with the intent of including them in a podcast. A sort of special-edition one-off that we’ll do once a year. And this year, it’s one of the stars of “Hellbenders,” the legendary Clancy Brown, and it’s also writer/director J.T. Petty, whose work I’m a fan of in general, and who is remarkably candid about the work he does and the scale at which he works.

I’m on the road most of Wednesday, and I’m hoping I’ll have more reviews and features for you even as I’m in route to Austin.